Life guards are tasked with overseeing swimmers who are involved in various activities in the water, such as surfing, swimming, body boarding, etc. Many times these activities are participated in by adults who are experience swimmers, but due to extreme sea conditions these participants may become distressed and need assistance. This may be due to high surf, rip tides, extreme waves, or marine life, or other exigent circumstances. In these occurrences, to avoid a drowning incident time is critical to get assistance to the distressed swimmer.
Such rescue operations can also occur out in open water by coast guard personnel, who may be called upon to rescue a distressed person in high seas or other dangerous situation. Not only is time of the essence to get the person help, but the person tasked with rescuing the flailing person may himself become endangered by the surroundings and the person to be rescued. The present invention is directed to a system and method for delivering assistance to a distressed swimmer in a quick and effective manner.